Alright, here's the sitrep on this one: I bought my heaps of Eldar in Afghanistan/TN while in Army; we met [online lol] while I was in the 'Stan. So, she knows I'm invested in this now and for the future; decided she wants to play, too...

First, she said she didn't want Space Marines or IG or such, and I thought it was because she wanted girly stuff. Turns out, she just didn't want armies that were common or too hard to play, so that shot the Dark Eldar outta the Warp... I asked what type of player she is (got one of those "looks" haha) and clarified by reminding her of her WoW characters. So, she told me Fury Warrior and Combat Rogue -- great, now we know you're 1) psycho-aggressive and 2) melee-oriented. *emote: /hides collector's combat knives from bedroom to other places*

She then expressed interest in 'Nids (later, ewww yucky bugs!), then switched to SoB (nobody has them in store? I can't go see the models? they're outdated?), got excited when I showed her Daemons but now has settled on Orks and is very excited about them. Even got a codex when we went to the LGS.

Cool!

Except, while she's getting into the fluff, the look&feel and all... she's not sure what she wants/needs. I pointed her toward the GW site w/ the "Getting Started with" and "Expanding AoBR" articles. She said she'd read later... Wants me to "be the brains" so she can just paint (her real budding passion apparently) and play.

I said, it'll be hard to play if you don't know your army, and even harder if you don't know your enemies' setups, so you can figure how to out-fight/-manuever them. She said, she "knows that" but I have a feeling she's not quite getting it...

How to reinforce that she needs to make her own choices, her own lists, her own way? I've even tried to get her MWG/DakkaDakka/Warseer forums to no avail.

She's super stoked about this, and about spending time with me doing it -- loves nerds and nerdy stuff, heh. She's got a paint scheme down, for the most part, but was shocked when she realized recently: "OMG they come in pieces? I've gotta put them all together?!"

Yes, dear. /smh -- I think she wants me to do that part, too...

NOTE: I'm gonna follow this up with an 1850pt list I made for her under a basic theme of "Mixed-Mek" and would like advice on making it both fun AND competitive -- Warboss, Boyz in Trukks, Nobs in Battlewagon, couple Deffkoptas racing toward the enemy lines w/ Kommandos popping up when needed and a Big Mek in the back trudging alongside Deff Dread and 3 Kans.

I saw the list posted, and from your response here I assume you haven't purchased anything yet? If that's so, let me know in this thread which Ork models you like. That's the best way to get started IMO, play what you want to play first and worry about being super competitive later. After all, it's your army and you are going to be spending a lot of time with it. So let me know which ones you like best, and we can build you a list that will work at different point tiers.

"I dig how in a setting where giant, muscled fungus men ride Mad Max cars and use their own teeth as currency, the concept of little engineering dudes with beards was considered a step too far down the aisle of silliness."

I seem to like mek and speed the most according to my Bf that posted this. I however am not opposed to just making a "green tide" and adding and taking away as I learn if that makes sense. He is correct, I do think I will have the most fun painting but I can be very competitive.

The green tide is not a bad way to start. Most ork players around my shop have started this way. That way when you start to branch out you know you will always have that base of boys to draw from.

I prefer the battle wagon boys. there is nothing like moving 3 battle wagons forward with deffrollas It generally scares most armies that use a lot of vehicles.

if you like to be sneaky then Komandos and Snikrot is the way to go. Around here when the opponent finds out I am using snikrot they deploy away from the edge. This brings them that much closer to my main army running across the board to get into combat.

Last one I will mention is the can list. you can have up to 9 kans in an army. I like these guys because they can hit the broad side of a barn with guns. give them some rokkits or grotzookas or even bega blasta to have some fun. Plus they look so cool